


Angels and Demons, Grapes and Wine

by boolucole



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies), Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-19
Updated: 2015-06-04
Packaged: 2018-02-26 07:23:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2643143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boolucole/pseuds/boolucole
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hiccup is an angel traveling to Earth for the first time, looking for a recently-deceased soul. Jack is a demon, looking for a meal of spiritual energy. What happens next will warm your heart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Angels and Demons, Grapes and Wine

Hiccup giggled excitedly as he threw himself backwards off solid ground and into the endless abyss of light that was The Passage, the wind of his fall ruffling his wing feathers nicely. He laughed again and turned in mid-air, spreading his limbs in a star pattern to slow his fall as he looked over the glowing marble of Earth beneath him. Going back to the mortal realm had been a little itch of his from the moment he had ascended to angelic status, and now that he finally was he was just so excited.  
  
The purpose of the visit was a little less than pleasant, but he supposed that, as an angel, he had to let go of the mortal disdain for death. He himself was proof that there was something after it, but old habits died hard. Besides, something about wrenching loved ones away from people didn’t sit right with him, never mind that it was only for about sixty years.   
  
He hit the atmosphere and shuddered slightly with the turbulence, poking his wings out a bit to slow his fall. He didn’t want to crash into anything, because even though he was only there in spirit, spirits could hit hard if they hit hard enough. It wouldn’t do if he was the one to expose the truth about angels and demons to the unsuspecting mortals below.   
  
Speaking of which, he was coming in sort of hot. He adjusted his angle slightly, then leveled out completely as he drew closer to the ground, sticking his wings out in a glide. He soared above the cloud layer for a moment, enjoying the feeling of the sun and the wind, before he slowly descended through.

The shock of the rainstorm that was going on jarred him, so much that he almost lost his velocity. His wings held through it though, so the rain that cut across his face continued unabated. Lightning flashed in the clouds so close above him, and he flinched away foolishly before reminding himself that he possessed no atoms for the electrons to jump to. He shook his head and kept going, though not a few nervous glances still made their way skyward.

He skimmed underneath the belly of the storm until at last his destination was in sight, a small coastal town with many boats and many more hotels. His eyes searched for the beacon of light he had only read about, the pillar of brilliance that would lead him to the soul he was supposed to retrieve, but the luminous attention-grabber seemed to be absent.  
  
‘Inside then,” Hiccup sighed in aggravation, “ _Great._ ”

It was always so much more convenient when the souls were outside, easily spotted by the angels that came to take them to Heaven, but Hiccup supposed that if the death had been as jarring as his had been, inside would be more comfortable for the poor soul.  
  
Hiccup flapped his wings once before diving down at a high velocity, raindrops screaming past his face as he hurtled towards the roof of a skyscraper. He passed through as though it were butter, barely slowing down as he fell through the floors and ceilings. By the time he reached the lobby of the building he had lost all of his speed, so it was with a very minor thump that he landed on the floor.   
  
And there was still no soul to be found. Lovely.   
  
He quickly exited the building and flapped his wings, reaching the sky again in an instant and repeating the process with a different building. Then again with another, and again with another. All day he dove and ascended, looking for the elusive soul, and it was with a suspicious look on his face that he stepped out of the last possible building the spirit could be hiding in.   
  
“The soul is here,” Hiccup said to himself, a habit from his childhood, “I can feel it. So why can’t I find it?”

“Probably because somebody else found it first,” a voice suggested from behind him, and Hiccup whirled around the see…

Nothing.  
  
“Awww…” a voice cooed beside his ear, and once again he whipped around, “Is da poor widdle angel confused?”   
  
The voice never left his ear, even though there was never anybody behind him, and with a narrowing of his eyes Hiccup crossed his arms.   
  
“Oh yes, very funny. Picking on the first-timer will definitely prove how experienced you are,” Hiccup drawled, glancing around with an unimpressed air, “I expect you’ll be promoted for this.”

“Well aren’t you a dry one,” the voice commented, and Hiccup raised an eyebrow.

“It’s actually quite damp out,” the angel commented, and the voice barked out a short laugh. Funny though…

“And funny, too!” the voice said, and Hiccup could have sworn that it was coming...from...his…

Hiccup looked down at his shoulder, where a white-haired demon was lazily perched. In his hands was the struggling soul of a young man, eyes wide with fear and confusion.  
  
Hiccup screamed and flicked them both off.   
  
The demon unshrunk himself and the soul and flew up a bit, lowering softly to the ground with the recently deceased still in his hands. “Tut tut, little angel,” the demon chastised softly, “Didn’t anyone ever teach you that flicking people is rude?”

“You’re a demon that was perched on my shoulder with a soul held hostage!” Hiccup pointed out, perhaps a little louder and a little more panicked than he should have sounded in front of a dangerous being such as this, “I think my actions were justified!”

“Cool motive. Still rude,” the demon said airily, reaffirming his grip as the soul tried to make a break for it. The guy’s eyes were wide with terror, pleading with the small chestnut-haired boy even as they glanced back at the demon.  
  
“That’s a soul. A recently-deceased soul. A recently-deceased soul I was sent to get. The recently-deceased soul specifically meant for me to collect. _My_ recently-deceased soul,” Hiccup rambled, and the demon cocked his head curiously.   
  
“This soul?” he asked obliviously, and Hiccup glared.   
  
“ _Yes_ , that soul! Give it here!” he barked in annoyance, holding out a hand expectantly, and though his voice was firm his hand trembled.   
  
The demon’s eyes darkened, and a smile split his face.   
  
“I dunno,” the demon said, pretending to consider the soul in his arms, “This is a pretty vivid one. So defined. Lots of spiritual energy, I would think.”   
  
He suddenly bent his head forward and stuck out his tongue, eyes never leaving Hiccup’s as he dragged it up the soul’s neck and tightened his grip when the struggling increased. He made a show of tasting, running his tongue up to the soul’s earlobe before grinning wider and concluding, “Yep. Delicious.”   
  
Hiccup was flustered. _Immensely_ flustered, and just a bit aroused if he was going to be honest with himself. However, that guy was still a demon and he was still threatening to eat that soul and Hiccup was still an angel and it was wrong of him to be attracted to this and wait what was he saying again?

“I’ve just been so _hungry_ lately,” the demon confided, a wistful tone entering his voice as he licked his lips, “I’m not able to get up here often, but when I do I’m almost always driven off by angels. I haven’t gotten a decent meal in ages!”  
  
Then he smiled again and said, “But here’s one here, right in my arms. And there you are, just so inexperienced. You don’t even have a weapon! It would be so easy to just…” snapping his teeth right beside the soul’s ear and baring his fangs in a feral grin. His eyes were slitted, probably from his hunger, and Hiccup felt fear enter his brain as he registered that Oh dear God this demon’s gonna eat the guy whaddo I do whaddo I do whaddo I-   
  
Hiccup smacked himself, much to the confusion of the two facing him, and shook his head to clear his panic away. Not the time. He cleared his throat.

“Why would you want to eat _him_?” Hiccup asked the demon in a judgemental sort of way, eying the soul with distaste as he strolled forward. He circled the two and poked at the soul, narrowing his eyes and even sniffing him a bit before saying, “He’s so _scrawny_.”

Then he took the soul’s hand and lifted it to his mouth, licking from his palm to his wrist and adding, “And he seems a bit bitter to me, like one of those grapes that are smaller than the others.”

The demon raised an eyebrow, but then bent to lick the guy again, slower this time. He smacked his lips contemplatively, then eyed Hiccup suspiciously and opined, “He tastes fine to me.”  
  
“That is exactly what people say when they taste horrible vintage wine. It tastes fine they say, and the nobles on the other side of the room titter to themselves as they sip their ambrosic alcohol. It’s all about how it’s _aged_ ,” Hiccup explained, putting a hand on the guys forehead before nodding decisively.   
  
“This guy isn’t _nearly_ old enough to be a good vintage. Only twenty six, and he died of a car accident to boot,” Hiccup told him, then at the demon’s confused look confided in a conspiratorial whisper, “You always get the slightest hint of oil when it involves vehicles. Gasoline too, sometimes.”   
  
The demon made a disgusted face and glanced down at the soul, then grew thoughtful.   
  
“So what do you suggest I do? I’m still hungry, but this guy sounds like garbage now,” the demon said, curling his lip down at the young man. Glancing up at Hiccup, he blinked before doing a double take and staring a bit more intently.   
  
Slowly, a small smile crossed his face.   
  
“Maybe I’ll just have _you_ instead,” the demon said thoughtfully, pushing the soul away to draw Hiccup into his arms instead. The guy ran away as fast as his legs would carry him as the surprised angel took a moment to catch up, sparks running through his body from the demon’s touch. It was kind of intoxicating.

“Ex _cuse_ me?” Hiccup finally laughed, raising an eyebrow at the demon, “I don’t know who you think you are, but angels have _much_ more spiritual energy than regular humans do. I don’t think you’d know what to do with all this.”

He gestured down at himself with a slightly restricted hand, and the demon bit back a snicker.

“Is that so?” he asked, trying to be serious and failing miserably. It was only with an immense amount of will that he refrained from bursting out into laughter. This angel was adorable!

“Definitely,” Hiccup said decisively, telling himself that struggling would only make it worse. But of course, how much worse could it get than being trapped in a demon’s embrace about to be eaten?

“But wouldn’t that just mean you’d survive? I mean, if I can’t take it all, I may as well just leave you with enough to live. Right?” the demon asked suggestively, and Hiccup’s brain drew a blank. It was logical, from the demon’s perspective of course, but he really didn’t want to know what it felt like to be partially eaten by a demon.

“But what if I taste bad?” he came up with, blurting it out even as his cheeks flamed up at the odd sentence, “What if I’m so repulsive that you simply can’t help yourself and burst into disgusted flames? What if your tongue falls out of your mouth, feeling betrayed that you would force such a foul meal onto it?”

The demon made a choking noise that Hiccup eventually realized was a snort of laughter, shaking with silent snickers and eying the angel with amusement.  
  
When he was again calm enough to speak, the demon opened his mouth and said, “Okay. First, demons are immune to flames, so that wouldn’t really do anything. Second, angels are supposed to be the sweetest beings in all of existence. Third, I don’t think tongues are sentient. And fourth...”  

Hiccup wasn’t expecting the demon to bend down and lick his cheek, which was kind of foolish when he thought about it, and the feeling of not-total-repulsion that shot through him was even more unexpected. What was happening to him?

The demon blinked as he pulled his head back a bit, staring with wide eyes down at the angel and swallowing thickly. The brown-haired boy gazed back innocently, questions and a bit of confusion in his green eyes, and it was with a strained voice that the demon managed to get out, “Wow. That guy really _was_ bitter. At least, compared to you.”  
  
And then the demon kissed him, and Hiccup felt himself grow immediately weaker from the feeding even as he threw his arms around the demon’s neck and buried his hands in his white hair. It was slow and passionate, the rain still falling around them even after all this time, and Hiccup supposed that he should do something other than kiss back but oh well. His knees trembled, his wings drooped, but all Hiccup cared about was him and the demon and the demon and him and wow they were kissing and _wow they were **kissing**_.

But then then demon jerked his head away and pushed Hiccup a bit at the same time, fear shining in his blue eyes, and Hiccup groaned miserably at the nauseous dizziness that shot through him. He slipped from the demon’s arms to slump to the ground, the demon kneeling with him and helping him stay upright, and it was with a faint voice that he asked a rather obvious question.  
  
“Too much?”

The demon laughed a bit and said, “Just a bit.”  
  
Hiccup gave a small chuckled and asked quite suddenly, “What’s your name?”

The demon hesitated only a moment before answering, “Jack.”

Hiccup hummed in acknowledgment, giving a slurred, “M’Hiccup.” before slipping into unconsciousness.


	2. The Morning After

Hiccup awoke the same way all the other injured recruits were awakened if they got injured: with a bleary little groan, followed by a vicious slap from his commanding officer that almost sent him tumbling off the bed. As it was, he let out a surprised yelp of pain even as he shot into a sitting position, and spent the better part of a minute rubbing his aching cheek and glaring at the captain of the angelic forces as he calmly walked back to the chair he had been sitting in and kicked up his feet once more.  
  
 "So," the now-calm captain said to the angry trainee, "You met a demon."  
  
"Yes sir," Hiccup ground out, training still holding strong even through the pain.  
  
"And you let him feed off of you," the captain continued, as if it were an everyday occurrence.  
  
Hiccup immediately tamped down on the blush that threatened to spread across his cheeks as the memories of the white-haired demon came flooding back. Trying his best not to stutter from the image, Hiccup stated, "I didn't _let_ him do anything." 

The captain only smirked, closing his eyes and shaking his head as if amused by some inside joke known only to him. After a moment, he opened his blue eyes again and fixed Hiccup with a piercing stare that conveyed the message "I know all your secrets and you're adorable for trying to hide from me." 

"The escaped soul was tracked down by the team sent to look for you when you didn't return at the appointed time," the captain informed him, waiting for a second before continuing, "They saw the demon sitting with your unconscious body as well. They couldn't get a good look at what he was doing, if anything, but once he saw that they were approaching, he fled." 

Hiccup tried his best to betray nothing, only giving a mildly-interested blink as he processed the news. Jack had stayed with him to wait for the rescue team? That meant he truly did care. He was, of course, happy at the news but he couldn't let any such emotion show in front of the captain. 

"He did?" he asked instead, tilting his head a little, "Weird. Maybe he wanted to see if he could take me away with him. Sustain his food source." 

The corners of the captain's mouth turned up slightly, as if the man were trying hard to hold back a smile, but Hiccup knew that such a thing was impossible. The captain of the angel forces only smiled if he got to discipline a rowdy recruit, go down into a particularly thick hot spot of demons, or slice something's head off. It was common knowledge. 

"A viable hypothesis," the captain allowed, still not-smiling, "I'll be sure to mention it to the appropriate people." 

And with that, the captain rose from his chair, walked over to Hiccup's side, ruffled his hair with a stern, "Take your medicine," and walked out the door with nary a backward glance. 


	3. New Recruit

His time in the hospital had passed with the utter slowness such things usually prescribe themselves, fidgeting every few seconds and even trying for escape a couple of time, so it was with a particularly cheery jump that Hiccup flung himself off the edge of The Passage and back into the human world. His captain looked on with mild amusement as he took a measured step into the emptiness, falling with a calmness imposed by years of doing just that over and over, before flipping himself around in midair to fall headfirst toward Earth.

Even though the soul had been fine, and there wasn’t really any penalty for letting a demon go since they simply reformed in Hell after a time, there was still the possibility that the soul could have been devoured by another demon. Due to this, Hiccup had been assigned what was called an escort but what was actually a babysitter, to make sure he didn’t mess up a second time.

Since all of the regular escorts had been busy with other cases, because apparently this new batch of recruits was utterly useless, Hiccup’s captain had offered to do it until somebody’s schedule opened up.

They entered the atmosphere with no problems, streaking along through the cloudless sky with a single-minded purpose. Hiccup was completely focused on finding the soul, not thinking about Jack the white-haired demon at all, and anybody who suggested otherwise was clinically insane.

From the looks the captain was giving him, Hiccup thought the man might have to be committed.

They approached the site of death in an ever-diminishing spiral, a trick that the captain explained was to provide maximum visibility for the beacon, and located it quite easily this time. The poor girl was in the middle of a park, having hit her head off the monkey bars as she fell off, and was most likely too terrified to go anywhere.

They landed with a fluttering of feathers and nary a sound, eyes darting around the children screaming and playing before finding the one girl that was enveloped in an aura of golden light. She was sitting on the ground a few feet away, knees drawn up to her chest, and the two angels could see the tear tracks on her face.

Hiccup was immediately sympathetic. The captain stood back to watch as Hiccup stepped up to the girl.

“Hey sweetie…” he began softly, biting the inside of his lip as her head whipped around to look at him in surprise. Just how many people had she found couldn’t see her?

“Y-You’re talking to me?” she stuttered, quickly wiping the tears off her cheeks and standing, “You’re n-not ignoring me?”

“Of course I’m talking to you,” Hiccup promised her, “Why wouldn’t I?”

“I don’t know,” she said, slightly bitter and a lot sad as she looked around at all the kids playing, “I was playing yesterday, and then I hit my head, and when I woke up nobody would talk to me!”

Hiccup knew this wasn’t true; souls took a bit to wake up after death. Their minds had to focus everything on creating an incorporeal form for them, and on organizing their memories. According to the alert that had came in for her, the girl had died about three months ago and woken up not five hours prior to their arrival.

“I don’t think they’re ignoring you,” Hiccup started carefully, acutely aware of how easy it would be to set this tiny child off into more tears, “Maybe they just can’t see you.”

“C-Can’t see me?!” the girl cried, immensely disturbed by the idea, “Why wouldn’t they be able to s-see me?!’

‘W-well, uhm, y’see,” Hiccup flailed, trying to find a sufficient explanation in his head, “Uhm, y’know how in books, the hero will have something happen to them that puts them on an adventure?”

The girl’s lip stopped trembling as she thought about this, her eyes darting off to the side for a second before she looked back at Hiccup and said clearly, “Like Voldemort killing Harry’s parents.”

“Yes!” Hiccup grasped, not actually knowing what she was talking about, “Exactly! Sometimes, something happens to change how things are. Harry’s parents get killed by Voldemort, and you hit your head.”

‘So...I’m on an adventure?” she asked him, more curious now than sad, and Hiccup smiled widely at this recovery.

“Right! You’re on an adventure, to visit a magic land made of clouds and learn lots of things from people with wings!” Hiccup spun, not actually lying but leaving some crucial details out. Like the fact that she was dead.

Her eyes were widened in awe and curiosity, staring up at him, but she managed to wrench herself away from her fantasy with, “What about mommy and daddy?”

Trying very hard not to freeze under the question, Hiccup floundered a bit before saying, “Nobody could see you because it’s a secret adventure. Nobody can know, because the bad guys might find out.”

The girl grew considerably more panicked at this thought, wailing out, “I’m not ready to fight bad guys yet! I have to get a sword and armor and learn magic first!”

“Exactly. Mommy and daddy will see you again, but not until you have a sword and a shield and learn enough magic to protect yourself and them,” Hiccup told her, giving her an intense look to convey the importance of this, and the girl’s eyes hardened in an impressive impression of the angel captain as she looked up at Hiccup.

“Right. I have to protect them,” she said seriously, and Hiccup smiled down at her.

“Right,” he agreed, stepping back slightly and taking a deep breath.

Flinging both hands out to the side, he closed his eyes as wisps of his inner light escaped from his skin and coalesced into a ball of glowing essence floating in front of him. With the recently deceased girl watching in awe, Hiccup clapped his hands together in front of him and crushed the ball into a cupped handful of glowing dust, which he blew onto the girl in front of him with a smart puff of breath.

It enveloped her, the cloud of gold seeming to grow into volume as more of the girl was obscured by the swirling dust, until it rushed in to cling to her form and immediately faded into a white tunic and leggings. White wings like theirs fluttered behind her, her eyes wide as she felt the new muscles that had been grafted onto her body with the seamless precision that was typical of magic, and she flexed her now-gloved hands almost instinctively.

And then she shot up into the sky, her muscles bunching before she jumped up with a powerful flap, and Hiccup flinched at the dust blown into his eyes. His smile was wide, though, as he observed her whirl and dive in the air with a reckless abandon, whooping in delight as she wheeled through the air on her newfound appendages.

"Good job," came the quiet voice of praise from behind him, and Hiccup whirled around in surprise to see the captain giving him a small smile of praise. Small, but there.

After a moment of stunned surprise, Hiccup managed a stuttered, "Th-thank you, uhm, sir," before turning back to the overjoyed girl and cupping his hands to his mouth.

“Alright sweetie, time to go!” he shouted, and the girl cried out a disappointed noise but nevertheless came in for a slightly awkward landing. Once she was standing in front of him, wide-eyed and anticipating, Hiccup snapped his fingers.

The air beside them was abruptly cut open in a neat line, the cloudy headquarters of angel dispatch shining from the other side. With an excited squeal, the girl raced through and started babbling about how she was going to save the world, with an amused Hiccup and angel captain following behind.


End file.
